The sun rises daily with the same intensity. Day in and day out, this is a routine affair. Never for a moment does the Sun seem tired of delivering its light with the same intensity. You may forget your morning jog, but the Sun never forgets to rise on time.
But on some days, it encounters dark clouds that prevent its entire light from reaching Earth. But that never deters the spirit of the Sun. It continues to rise, day in and day out, and eventually the clouds (whether they are due to a cyclonic storm or due to a bad spell of rain like what we saw recently in Chennai) clear out for the Sun to emerge as bright as ever.
Imagine now if the Sun had lost hope and allowed the clouds to conquer it. Our planet and all life on it would have been shrouded in permanent darkness. But that was not the spirit of the Sun. It kept hope despite the fiery cyclonic storm. When it appeared that all was dark, the Sun knew that it was not permanent. The Sun knew that all it needed to do was what it had been doing all along. Rise and shine. That was its job, that was its duty, and that was what it most enjoyed doing. It was a kind of a passion.
Just like the Sun went about its job come hell or high water, in the same way an investor needs to sustain his or her SIP with the same discipline that the Sun displays. SIP investing should hence, be sustained through good and bad weather that prevails in the stock market.
When dark clouds hover over the markets and when stocks look hopelessly down and tired, our SIP investing should continue like the Sun’s rising and setting because eventually, the clouds over the stock markets would clear out and our SIP investments would once again shine brightly.
On the other hand if fear grips the market and if that makes us switch off our SIP, our personal world would be deprived of the wealth that a sustained SIP would have delivered. It would be nothing short of doomsday for our future. Imagine what would it be like, if one day the clouds were to clear and there was no Sun to shine through?
Our approach to SIPs, therefore, should be based on the principle of the Sun. Keep investing all the time, come cloud or rain. Go on and on and on.
Dharmendra Satapathy is the Founder Director, Next Level Education